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The Sidhe
The Sidhe are a subrace of Fey that skirt the fine line between elves and fairies, and unlike elemental fey such as dryads or naiads, are not constrained to a specific natural cause. In essence, their differences can be compared to the ways in which humans and elves differ as two similar races which share a common form, but divergent origins. Originally, they evolved as an offshoot of feydom adapted to harmonize better with other races, being magically inclined, knowledgable and leading very long lives while also being much closer to growning populations of mortals such as humans. The eldest of the Sidhe, many of them still living to this day in seclusion or scattered across the world, can vaguely remember the period under which a Sidhe Kingdom arose in southern Cyrell, arising from a long and difficult period of civil war to claim supremacy and their right to speak for all feykind as an overarching ruling class. During this period, many of the Sidhe delved into various powerful, mysterious and dangerous forms of magic over several centuries, creating a series of powerful artifacts and accidentally forming even smaller subgroups of mutant fae marked with various curses and strange abilities. These outcast Sidhe called 'Fomors' went to war with their progenitors in the midst of what looked to be the close of the original conflict, re-igniting it for almost another three-quarters of a century. In these distant times, there arose a figure defined in fey legends as Airgetlam, also known in the histories of the Church and the Kingdom of Osbourne as Lord Argentus or Sun's Chosen respectively. It was claimed that this individual wielded two standards of office when he emerged from the ashes of the Fae Civil War, bearing an enchanted silver gauntlet and a sacred sword given to him by the gods of the sun and moon and using these artifacts to wage a campaign against both existing sides of the war the Silver King and his followers humbling Sidhe and Fomors to his cause. The warrior king's final wishes were that his sword and gauntlet be inherited through their family line in perpetuity. The Church appeared during this period, marked as a second Golden Age for the Silver Kingdom, in which both sides were at last sharing what seemed to be a satisfactory peace. However, as time moved on, the Church's involvement in the Colossus war hinged upon befriending and mediating between the smaller scale conflicts between Sidhe and Fomors in order to acquire rare weapons and magic neccessary to fight their foes. The Silver Kingdom, which now remained a patchwork of pre-kingdom and post-kingdom culture had its own issues to resolve, such as many fae from outside the Sidhe who had become frustrated and questioned the legitimacy of the Silver Kingdom's succession, as well as their rights to claim their superiority over all fae races. The Silver Kingdom's power slowly lost its strength, becoming increasingly disorganized due to the disappearance of the Gilded Sun's Blade and the Silver Moon's Arm. Whether this was the the results of the first contact with the Church of Eatos or some power from within remains unclear, and the next, ensuing conflict is lost to history. All that is known is that a faction of the Sidhe, wished to recover everything that had been lost during the Silver Kingdom's reign, and that the Church had placed increasing demands on Sidhe magi and weaponsmiths to develop anti-fiendish weaponry. This alliance with the Church was not one of mutual agreement but one of necessity, as the Church pledged its allegiance with the Sidhe and other fae in order to helpreclaim the standards of office for the monarchy of the Silver Kingdom. Nevertheless, lost artifacts and heirlooms which were once new in the era of the Silver Kingdom and the Civil War still litter the landscape, buried amongst their Sidhe and Fomor descendants. To this day, deep within ancient ruins, catacombs and crumbling Sun Castles, treasure hunters both Sidhe, Fomor and otherwise still search for treasures of the old kingdoms which rose and fell on that tract of land, while all the while, what remains of the fallen Silver Kingdom of the Sidhe have fallen back into a state of isolation and conflict. Fomorian Magical Castes: Laenan Caste: Fomorian Sidhe of the Laenan caste use their manipulation of geasa and words of power in order to dominate the minds of their targets similar to a powerful dominate mind spell. It can be resisted, but it is more difficult if the enemy trusts the Laenan agent in question. Whoever allows a Leanan Caste into their mind allows this alien power to encroach into themselves, eventually causing the forceful geasa to enter the subject's brain. This results in the Laenan influence first rewriting it subtly and then completely. With enough exposure, this could become permanent, eroding the sanity of the target over months and years of exposure. Derived from the experiments done by Eleri Caelath and her manipulation of the ancient magic of Geascraft and her investigations into Words of Power which marked her descendants with this cursed fate. Balor Caste: Fomorian Sidhe of the Balor caste are necromancers, given that epithet due to their progenitor being a magus who was claimed to invite death with a glance. Balor Caste can do common necromancy like most races, but they can also use a variety of painful or deadly curses using what are commonly known as Death Marks. Those who survive a Death Mark are targetted by Watchers and deemed as threats to the emerging Sidhe Kingdom. Death Marks are the last remnant of the old magic derived from the old death-curses of their progenitor, Baleros of the Evil Eye.